Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne (best biographies to read .txt) 📕

Once he said it, I knew he was right. “So do you think this Bio-Chrome thing is really a problem?” I asked, hoping he would say no.

“I’m afraid so. I don’t think they’re going to give up.” He paused. “But we have to go back to business as usual, bringing campers into the forest. We just have to be aware that some campers might be their spies.”

I thought about this for a moment. “Do you think they suspect that anyone in our group other than Lucas is a Shifter?”

“Hard to say.”

“I really think Mason may have grown up reading too many comic books. He probably believes being bitten by a radioactive spider will turn him into Spider-Man.”

Connor grinned. “It won’t?”

Playfully, I slapped his arm. He’s big into superheroes. Iron Man is his favorite, because he doesn’t actually possess superpowers. All of a sudden it seemed strange to me that Connor would prefer the guy who, without his metal suit, was as “normal” as the majority of the world.

“Are you comfortable being a Shifter?” I blurted out.

“Never really thought about it. Why?”

“Just thinking about how you admire Iron Man. I should probably leave the psychoanalysis to the pros.”

“Definitely.”

My thoughts shifted back to Bio-Chrome. “Maybe we should put a spy in their camp.”

Connor stared at me.

“What?” I asked, uncomfortable with his intensity.

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“I was kidding. Besides, who’d be crazy enough to volunteer?”

“Someone who thought they had nothing to lose.”

“Brittany, maybe,” I said quietly. I touched his knee. “Connor, you pal around with the guys. Why doesn’t anyone show an interest in her?”

He slowly shook his head. “Who the hell knows? There’s just something about her.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

Sighing, he took a bite of meat and chewed for a while, as though he had to digest his thoughts. “It’s hard to explain. She’s hot—and in shape. I mean, man, she runs a couple of miles before dawn each morning, plus she does all those push-ups and sit-ups and even some weight training—which I’ve always thought is kind of weird for a girl because we’re genetically prone to be in amazing shape. So why the workouts?”

“You work out,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, but it’s different for guys. It’s because we’re guys.”

“Girls work out, too.”

“But not with the intensity that Brittany does.”

He stopped for a moment, grasping for words. “But it’s more than that with her. I look at you and I feel a soul-deep connection. Wolf to wolf. Even when I met Kayla, I felt that zing that meant she’s one of us. But with Brittany, there’s nothing. It’s like seeing some of the Static girls on campus and just knowing they’re outsiders.”

“But Brittany is one of us,” I insisted.

“I know. It makes no sense, but I’m not the only guy who feels Static vibes coming off her.”

“But she can’t be a Static. Her parents are Shifters.” They had to be. I knew her mother. As for her dad, I’d never met him. No one had as far as I knew. He lived in Europe, part of another clan. It had always been just Brittany and her mom. But still, I couldn’t imagine that her mom would hook up with a non-Shifter. I wasn’t even sure that was possible. “She’d have to be some kind of mutation or something.” I shook my head, totally blown away by the concept, and repeated, “She’s one of us.”

“Hey, Connor!” one of the guys called out, interrupting our discussion about Brittany. Not that I thought we had much more to say on the subject. The very idea of her not being a Shifter was too weird even to contemplate. As far as I knew, nothing like that had ever happened. “The old men are challenging us to a game of tag football. Fathers against sons. You in?”

“You bet.”

“Meet us in five. In the clearing.” He raced off.

“You gonna watch us play?” Connor asked.

“Sure.”

“Give me a kiss for good luck?”

I gave him what I hoped was a sexy grin. “Like you have to ask.”

He leaned in and kissed me. I’m always amazed by how warm his mouth is, by how nice it feels to be kissed by Connor. Not that I had any other experience to compare it to—he’d always been my one and only.

Drawing back, he smiled broadly. “I want more of that after I whip my dad’s butt.”

I laughed as he pulled me to my feet. We dropped our plates off and headed over to the clearing. He gave me another quick kiss before loping into the area where Lucas and several other Dark Guardians were waiting for him. Connor was incredibly swift and graceful. I loved watching the way he moved. He was amazingly perfect.

I thought about looking for Kayla and Brittany among the people who had gathered to watch, but I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with Brittany’s PMS attitude or whatever was going on with her. I wasn’t even in the mood to hear about how disgustingly happy Kayla was now that she and Lucas had found each other. I was glad for her, but maybe I was also a little jealous that she had no doubts whatsoever about her feelings toward Lucas, while uncertainty about my feelings toward Connor had begun to plague me.

I leaned against a tree, relishing its sturdiness. I’m all about nature; I appreciate every aspect of it, and I draw comfort from it. I needed a little comfort just then. As I looked around, I realized sadly that Connor was right. There wasn’t as much laughter as usual. Everyone seemed to realize that our world was on the brink of shifting—and we just weren’t comfortable with aspects of shifting that weren’t directly related to our bodies. Maybe that was the reason we still used terms like mate and only the guys publicly declared their intended. We were archaic in a quaint sort of way.

As it grew dark, a few torches were lit for the benefit of those of us who